A major challenge in modern medicine concerns the treatment of medical conditions that either do not elicit production of antibodies by a subject (e.g., due to the subject's immunological tolerance to self-antigens) or which do not elicit strong/robust antibody responses (e.g., certain bacterial/viral infections). Numerous medical conditions exist which fall into such categories. For example, conditions arising from or involving a subject's own self-proteins can involve moieties such as TNFα (involved/implicated in Crohn's disease, endotoxic shock, cerebral malaria, etc.), IL 10 (involved in SLE), and the like. Furthermore, it can be difficult for a subject to produce a robust antibody response to a variety of viral and bacterial infections such as HIV, CMV, tuberculosis, and staphylococcus. 
A number of different approaches have been put forth to address such immunological response problems. For example, some approaches have considered improved adjuvants/carriers, introduction of strong T cell epitopes into antigens, conjugation vaccines and combination vaccines. See, e.g., Baldridge, et al., Vaccine Adjuvants: Immunological and Clinical Principles. C. J. Hackett, Ham, D. A. Jr., Eds. (Humana Press, Totowa, N.J., 2006), pp. 235-255; Makela, et al., Expert Rev Vaccines, 1(3): 399-410 (2002); Dalum, et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 17:666 (1999); and Restifo, Curr Opin Immunol 8:658 (1996). Other approaches have tried immunization with nonspecifically labeled antigens (i.e., diazonium derivatized antigens). See, Weigle, J Exp Med 121:289 (1965).
However, there is a continuing need for better, more widely applicable methods and compositions to produce or enhance a subject's immunological response against specific self-proteins, e.g., TNFα, and/or against specific proteins from various pathogens, e.g., bacterial, viral, fungal, and/or prion pathogens. The current invention provides these and other benefits, as will be apparent upon examination.